For the first time the Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of a Congressional act.

URL

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Case

Marbury v. Madison

Date

1803

Annotation

For the first time, the Supreme Court declares an act of Congress unconstitutional, declaring, “A law repugnant to the Constitution is void.” The court does not strike down another federal law until the Dred Scott decision in 1857.

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Case

Martin v. Hunter's Lessee

Date

1816

Annotation

The Supreme Court asserts its right to review decisions of state courts.

URL

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Case

Dartmouth v. Woodward

Date

1819

Annotation

The Supreme Court declares that a charter to a private corporation is a contract and that a state government cannot impair a contract by unilateral action.

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Case

McCullough v. Maryland

Date

1819

Annotation

The Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States and endorses a loose interpretation of the constitution. “Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist[ent] with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.”

URL

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Case

Gibbons v. Ogden

Date

1824

Annotation

The Supreme Court invalidates a monopoly granted by New York State for the operation of steamboats on state waters on the grounds that it conflicts with congressional power under the Constitution’s commerce clause. The court establishes the principle that when federal and state laws conflict, federal law is supreme.

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Case

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

Date

1831

Annotation

The Supreme Court refuses to issue an injunction against the state of Georgia after it declares the laws of the Cherokee nation null and void. The court rules that it lacks jurisdiction because the Cherokee comprise a “domestic dependent” nation rather than a foreign state.

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Case

Worcester v. Georgia

Date

1832

Annotation

The Supreme Court declares a Georgia law requiring white residents in Cherokee territory to obtain a license from the governor unconstitutional since it conflicts with a federal treaty. President Andrew Jackson is reported to have said: “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!”

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Case

Barron v. Baltimore

Date

1833

Annotation

The Supreme Court rules that the Bill of Rights was intended to protect individuals against infringement of their rights by federal government and that the guarantees were not binding upon state governments.

URL

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Case

Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge

Date

1837

Annotation

The Charles River Bridge Company contended that under a charter granted by the Massachusetts legislature, it had a right to be free from competition. The Supreme Court rules that rights granted in a legislative charter should be construed narrowly and any ambiguity should be interpreted in the public interest.

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Case

Amistad

Date

1841

Annotation

The Supreme Court frees Africans, who had been enslaved in violation of Spanish law, and who had revolted while being transported in a Spanish ship while in Cuba, a Spanish colony.

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Case

Prigg v. Pennsylvania

Date

1842

Annotation

The Supreme Court invalidated Pennsylvania’s “personal liberty” law which forbid the seize and removal of fugitive slaves from the state. But the court also declared that state authorities were under no obligation to assist in the return of runaway slaves to their owners.

URL

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Case

License Cases

Date

1847

Annotation

The Supreme Court upholds Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island laws restricting and taxing the sale of alcoholic beverages even though the tax impinges on interstate commerce.

URL

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Case

Luther v. Borden

Date

1849

Annotation

In a case involving armed rebellion in Rhode Island, the court rules that Congress has the power to determine which is the lawful government in the state and that this decision cannot be reviewed by the courts.

URL

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Case

Passenger Cases

Date

1849

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court invalidates a head tax imposed by Massachusetts and New York on immigrants entering the states on the ground that the federal government had exclusive authority to regulate foreign commerce.

URL

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Case

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Date

1857

Annotation

The Supreme Court rules that African Americans, slave or free, were not citizens of the United States and were not entitled to sue in federal court. It also rules that a slave’s residence in a free state or territory does not make him free upon his return to a slave state. It further rules that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional since a state could not deprive people of their property without due process of law.

URL

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Case

Abelman v. Booth

Date

1859

Annotation

After the Wisconsin Supreme Court freed an abolitionist who had been convicted of violating the Fugitive Slave Act, the Supreme Court denies the right of state courts to interfere in federal cases.

URL

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Case

Ex Parte Merryman

Date

1861

Annotation

After a Baltimore secessionist was arrested by military authorities, Chief justice Roger Taney issued a writ of habeas corpus, which was rejected by the military commander. Taney cited the commander for contempt and denied that the president had the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus.

URL

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Case

Prize Cases

Date

1863

Annotation

The Supreme Court upholds the legality of President Abraham Lincoln’s blockade of Confederate ports, ruling that it was legal for the Union to seize neutral shipping.

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Case

Ex Parte Vallandigham

Date

1864

Annotation

After a civilian was arrested and tried by a military commission, the Supreme Court refused to review a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that it did not have the authority to review the proceedings of a military commission.

URL

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Case

Ex Parte Milligan

Date

1866

Annotation

The Supreme Court declares military courts unconstitutional in areas where the civil courts are in operation. The majority opinion says that the Constitution applies “equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances.”

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Case

Ex Parte Garland

Date

1867

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court declares federal and state loyalty oaths, barring ex-Confederates from pursuing their occupations, unconstitutional, since they violate the Constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws and bills of attainder.

URL

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Case

Cummings v. Missouri

Date

1867

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court declares federal and state loyalty oaths, barring ex-Confederates from pursuing their occupations, unconstitutional, since they violate the Constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws and bills of attainder.

URL

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Case

Veazie Bank v. Fenno

Date

1869

Annotation

A majority of the court upholds a federal tax on state bank notes that was intended to eliminate state-chartered banks and promote a national banking system on the grounds that Congress had the power to provide for a sound currency.

URL

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Case

Collector v. Day

Date

1871

Annotation

By an 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not tax the income of a state official. This decision was not overturned until 1939.

URL

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Case

Slaughterhouse Cases

Date

1873

Annotation

In its first decision involving the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled that the amendment applied only to federal, and not state, violations of the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens. It also held that the amendment’s equal protection clause applied only to state laws discriminating against African Americans.

URL

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Case

Munn v. Illinois

Date

1877

Annotation

the court upholds an Illinois law setting maximum rates for grain storage, arguing that this represented a legitimate exercise of the state’s power to regulate businesses that involved the public interest.

URL

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Case

Strauder v. West Virginia

Date

1879

Annotation

The court rules that the 14th Amendment prohibits states from excluding people from juries on account of race.

URL

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Case

Ex Parte Virginia

Date

1879

Annotation

The court rules that the 14th Amendment prohibits states from excluding people from juries on account of race.

URL

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Case

Springer v. United States

Date

1881

Annotation

The court upholds the federal income tax adopted during the Civil War.

URL

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Case

Civil Rights Cases

Date

1883

Annotation

The Supreme Court strikes down the provisions of the 1875 Civil Rights Act that entitle all people to equal enjoyment of public accommodations and privileges on the ground that the 14th Amendment was intended to prevent wrongful acts by states and did not apply to the acts of individuals.

URL

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Case

Ex Parte Yarbrough

Date

1884

Annotation

The Supreme Court holds Congress’ authority to make it illegal for individuals to interfere with the right of a citizen to vote in a federal election.

URL

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Case

Santa Clara Co. v. Southern Pacific R.R. Co.

Date

1886

Annotation

The Supreme Court extends the protections of due process to corporations.

URL

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Case

Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific R.R. v. Illinois

Date

1886

Annotation

The court strikes down an Illinois law regulating transportation contracts, ruling that it infringed on Congress’ exclusive control over interstate commerce.

URL

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Case

Yick Wo v. Hopkins

Date

1886

Annotation

The Supreme Court invalidated a San Francisco ordinance that prohibited operating a laundry in a wooden building without the permission of the Board of Supervisors because the ordinance was administered in a manner that discriminated against Chinese immigrants. This was the first time that the court struck down a law that was not discriminatory on its face but which was applied in a discriminatory fashion.

URL

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Case

Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Louis R.R. v. Minnesota

Date

1890

Annotation

The court invalidates a Minnesota law that establishes a commission to set rates for railroads and warehouses because it does not allow parties to appeal decisions to the courts.

URL

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Case

U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co.

Date

1895

Annotation

In an 8-1 decision, the court rules that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act does not apply to manufacturers located within a single state.

URL

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Case

Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co.

Date

1895

Annotation

By a 6-2 vote, the court rules that a federal tax on income from municipal bonds was invalid, since a municipality was created by a state. At a rehearing, the court, by a 5-4 vote, rules that a federal income tax, established by the Wilson-Gorham Tariff Act of 1894, violated the Constitutional prohibition against direct taxes.

URL

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Case

In Re Debs

Date

1895

Annotation

The Supreme Court denied a writ of habeas corpus to Eugene Debs, president of the American Railroad Union, after he was cited for contempt for violating an injunction against the Pullman Strike. The court ruled that the strike interfered with the federal responsibility to transport the mails and its authority over interstate commerce

URL

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Case

Plessy v. Ferguson

Date

1896

Annotation

By a vote of 8-1, the court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring African Americans and whites to use separate railroad cars did not deprive African Americans of equal protection under the 14th Amendment. The ruling gives judicial sanction to the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

URL

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Case

U.S. v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association

Date

1897

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote, the court rules that an association of 18 railroads that set railroad rates violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

URL

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Case

Holden v. Hardy

Date

1898

Annotation

By a 7-2 vote, the court upheld a Utah Law that set maximum work hours in mining, ruling that this was a reasonable exercise of the state’s police functions. This decision provided a precedent for later efforts by states to regulate working conditions.

URL

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Case

Smyth v. Ames

Date

1898

Annotation

The court overturns a Nebraska act setting railroad rates, ruling that rates must be reasonable and provide companies with a fair return on their property.

URL

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Case

Williams v. Mississippi

Date

1898

Annotation

The Supreme Court rules that literacy tests and poll taxes do not violate the 15th Amendment.

URL

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Case

De Lima v. Bidwell

Date

1901

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote the court ruled that Puerto Rico was no longer a foreign nation after the Spanish-American War.

URL

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Case

Downes v. Bidwell

Date

1901

Annotation

In a ruling involving the status of Puerto Rico, the court held that the Constitution and all the privileges of citizenship did not apply to the people of an annexed territory.

URL

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Case

Champion v. Ames

Date

1903

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote, the court upheld a federal law prohibiting the states from sending lottery tickets through the mails.

URL

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Case

Northern Securities Co. v. United States

Date

1904

Annotation

Upheld a government suit against a railroad holding company, ruling that an illegal combination in restraint of interstate commerce violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

URL

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Case

Lochner v. New York

Date

1905

Annotation

The Supreme Court struck down a state law setting a 10-hour day for bakery workers because it interfered with the protection of liberty guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. This decision barred states from interfering with an employee’s right to contract with an employer. In a dissent, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: “The 14th Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics.”

URL

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Case

Swift v. United States

Date

1905

Annotation

The court unanimously upheld the federal government’s prosecution of the “Beef Trust” under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

URL

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Case

Adair v. United States

Date

1908

Annotation

By a 6-2 vote, the court struck down a provision of the 1898 Erdman Act that prohibited railroads from requiring workers to agree not to join a labor union.

URL

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Case

Muller v. Oregon

Date

1908

Annotation

The court upheld an Oregon law setting maximum hours for women workers. The state’s attorney, Louis Brandeis, submitted the “Brandeis Brief,” which included statistical, sociological, and economic data as well as legal arguments.

URL

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Case

Loewe v. Lawler

Date

1908

Annotation

The court unanimously ruled that a secondary boycott by a labor union was an illegal conspiracy in restraint of trade and violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

URL

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Case

Standard Oil of N.J. v. United States

Date

1911

Annotation

The Supreme Court ordered the breakup of the oil giant as a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. The court adopts the “rule of reason”—that a business combination was illegal only when it was engaged in unreasonable restraint of trade. The Court held that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act “should be construed in the light of reason, and as so construed, it prohibits all contracts and combinations which amount to an unreasonable or undue restraint of trade in interstate commerce.”

URL

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Case

Guinn v. United States

Date

1915

Annotation

The court rules that grandfather clauses, exempting those who grandfathers could vote before the adoption of the 15th Amendment from poll taxes, literacy tests, or other voting restrictions, were unconstitutional.

URL

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Case

Arver v. United States

Date

1918

Annotation

The court upheld the constitutionality of the World War I conscription act.

URL

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Case

Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries

Date

1919

Annotation

The court upheld the wartime prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages as a legitimate exercise of the government’s war-making powers.

URL

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Case

Schenck v. United States

Date

1919

Annotation

The court ruled unanimously that the World War I Espionage Act did not violate the 1st Amendment’s protection of free speech and free press, ruling that anti-war pamphlets encouraged resistance to the military draft and establishing the “clear and present danger” test.

URL

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Case

Abrams v. United States

Date

1919

Annotation

The court upheld the 1918 Sedition Act, ruling that pamphlets criticizing the U.S. intervention in Siberia were not protected by the 1st Amendment. In his dissent, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.”

URL

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Case

Bailey v. Drexel Furniture

Date

1922

Annotation

The court struck down a 1919 federal law that levied a prohibitive tax on products produced by child labor.

URL

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Case

Adkins v. Children's Hospital

Date

1923

Annotation

The court struck down a Congressional act authorizing a Wage Board for the District of Columbia from setting minimum wages for women workers. In a dissent, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: “The criterion of constitutionality is not whether we believe the law to be for the public good.”

URL

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Case

Gitlow v. New York

Date

1925

Annotation

For the first time the Supreme Court declares that the 14th Amendment makes 1st Amendment freedoms of speech and the press applicable to the states.

URL

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Case

Near v. Minnesota

Date

1931

Annotation

The Supreme Court ruled that “prior restraint” of the press violates the First Amendment of the Constitution. The court overturned a Minnesota law that prohibited continued publication of a newspaper that the court had deemed malicious, scandalous, and defamatory. This was the first time that the court struck down a state law for violating freedom of the press. “While reckless assaults upon public men…endeavoring faithfully to discharge official duties, exert a baleful influence and deserve the severest condemnation in public opinion,” said the court, “it cannot be said that this abuse is greater, and it is believed to be less, than that which characterized the period in which our institutions took shape.”

URL

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Case

Powell v. Alabama

Date

1932

Annotation

The Supreme Court overturned the conviction of the Scottsboro Boys, nine African American youths who had been convicted in the rape of two white women in a railroad freight car, on the ground that they had been denied due process because of the hostile community atmosphere in which the case was tried and trial judge’s failure to provide them with a defense attorney. For the first time, the court applies constitutional protections for a fair trial to the states.

URL

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Case

Nebbia v. New York

Date

1934

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that a state many regulate businesses in the public good, so long as the regulations were reasonable and effected through appropriate means.

URL

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Case

Schechter v. United States

Date

1935

Annotation

The court unanimously invalidated the National Industrial Recovery Act on the grounds that it delegated excessive authority to the president and regulated businesses that operated wholly within individual states.

URL

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Case

Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad Co.

Date

1935

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote the court struck down the Railroad Retirement Act which established pensions for railroad workers on the ground that it exceeded federal authority under the commerce clause.

URL

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Case

Patterson v. Alabama

Date

1935

Annotation

In another case involving the Scottsboro Boys, the court rules that they had been denied a fair trial because African Americans had been excluded from the jury list.

URL

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Case

Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority

Date

1936

Annotation

The court upheld a law establishing the TVA as a legitimate exercise of the federal government’s power to control navigable streams and provide for the national defense.

URL

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Case

West Coast Hotel v. Parrish

Date

1937

Annotation

“The switch in time that saves nine.” In the face of President Franklin Roosevelt’s proposal to expand the court’s membership, the court upheld a series of New Deal measures. By a 5-4 vote in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parris, the court upheld a Washington State minimum wage law, reversing its decision in Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923).

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Case

Steward Machine Co. v. Davis

Date

1937

Annotation

By 5-4 votes in Steward Machine Co. v. Davis and Helvering v. Davis, the court upheld the Social Security laws.

URL

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Case

Helvering v. Davis

Date

1937

Annotation

By 5-4 votes in Steward Machine Co. v. Davis and Helvering v. Davis, the court upheld the Social Security laws.

URL

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Case

DeJonge v. Oregon

Date

1937

Annotation

The court overturned the conviction under Oregon’s criminal syndicalist law, ruling that a speech presented in an orderly meeting did not constitute a “clear and present danger.”

URL

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Case

Herndon v. Lowery

Date

1937

Annotation

The court reversed the conviction of a Communist organizer in Georgia for inciting insurrection.

URL

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Case

Lovell v. Griffin

Date

1938

Annotation

The court upheld the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to distribute religious literature without a license.

URL

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Case

Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada

Date

1938

Annotation

The court ruled that an African American had a right to be admitted to the state law school, since the state’s alternative—paying for black students to attend law school in another state—was not equal.

URL

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Case

United States v. Carolene Products

Date

1938

Annotation

. In a footnote, Jusice Haran Fiske Stone said that the Supreme Court would give a higher level of constitutional protection to individual rights than to property rights. The footnote also says that the Surpeme Court will give a “presumption of constitutionality” to cases involving the powers of Congress and the states to regulate commerce.

URL

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Case

Hague v. C.I.O.

Date

1939

Annotation

The Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibited states from interfering with peaceful assemblies. In this case, Jersey City, N.J.’s mayor “Boss” Hague had prevented the CIO from assembling in public forums.

URL

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Case

Graves v. New York ex. rel. O’ Keefe

Date

1939

Annotation

The court ruled that a state tax on federal employees did not place an unconstitutional burden on the federal government.

URL

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Case

Minersville School District v. Gobitis

Date

1940

Annotation

By an 8-1 vote, the court upheld the expulsion of two Jehovah’s Witnesses, 12 year old Lillian Gobitis and her younger brother William, from school for refusing to salute the flag. At the time, 16 states had laws requiring students to salute the flag. In a dissent, Harlan Stone wrote that it was wrong to force citizens to say things they do not believe and that are forbidden by their religion.

URL

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Case

Thornhill v. Alabama

Date

1940

Annotation

The court rules that the 14th Amendment prohibited states from interfering with peaceful picketing.

URL

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Case

Edwards v. California

Date

1941

Annotation

. The court struck down a California “Anti-Okie” law designed to exclude indigent immigrants as an unconstitutional barrier to interstate commerce.

URL

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Case

Korematsu v. United States

Date

1943

Annotation

By a 6-3 vote, the court upheld the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans. In Ex parte Endo, the court held that the government could not detain a person whose loyalty had been established.

URL

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Case

West Virginia State School Board v. Barnette

Date

1943

Annotation

By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court overruled its decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, and struck down state laws requiring students to salute the American flag. In a decision issued on Flag Day, Robert H. Jackson wrote that Americans could not be forced to demonstrate their allegiance to “what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion” and that this was true for the young as well as adults. “The very purpose of the Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials.”

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Case

Smith v. Allwright

Date

1944

Annotation

The Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that restricted participation in the Democratic primary elections to whites on the ground that primaries are central to the elector process.

URL

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Case

Morgan v. Virginia

Date

1946

Annotation

The court prohibited buses engaged in interstate bus service from segregating passengers.

URL

Web site
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Web site
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Case

Everson v. Board of Education

Date

1947

Annotation

: In a decision upholding school boards’ reimbursement of the cost of public transportation for students attending parochial schools, Justice Hugo Black declares: “In the words of Jefferson, the [1st Amendment]…was intended to erect a ‘wall of separation between church and State.’”

URL

Web site
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Case

Illinois ex. rel. McCollum v. Board of Education

Date

1948

Annotation

The court ruled that an Illinois law permitting students to receive religion instruction on school property during school hours using private teachers was unconstitutional.

URL

Web site
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Case

Shelley v. Kraemer

Date

1948

Annotation

The court struck down restriction covenants that prohibited the sale of real estate to people of Asian and African descent as a violation of the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.

URL

Web site
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Case

Communications Association v. Douds

Date

1950

Annotation

The court upheld a provision of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 requiring labor union officials to sign an affidavit that they were not Communists.

URL

Web site
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Case

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents

Date

1950

Annotation

The court invalidated a Oklahoma law that required African American students to sit in designated areas in university classrooms, libraries, and cafeterias.

URL

Web site
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Case

Sweatt v. Painter

Date

1950

Annotation

The Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that restricted the University of Texas to white students only, even though the state had set up a separate law school for African American students.

URL

Web site
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Case

Dennis et al. v. United States

Date

1951

Annotation

The court upheld the Smith Act of 1946 that made it a crime to advocate the violent overthrow of the government.

URL

Web site
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Case

Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer

Date

1952

Annotation

The court ruled 6-2 that President Harry Truman exceeded his authority when he seized major steel companies to avoid a strike that would have disrupted steel production during the Korean war.

URL

Web site
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Case

Rochin v. California

Date

1952

Annotation

The court reverses the conviction of a man whose stomach had been forcibly pumped for drugs on the ground that the Constitution’s due process clause bars “conduct that shocks the conscience.”

URL

Web site
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Case

Burstyn v. Wilson Artistic

Date

1952

Annotation

The court extends 1st Amendment protections to movies, overturning a 1915 ruling that movies “are a business, pure and simple.” The court holds that New York State’s denial of a license to the film “The Miracle” on the grounds of sacrilege violated the 1st Amendment.

URL

Web site
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Case

Brown v. Board of Education

Date

1954

Annotation

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision that allowed for “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites. A unanimous court held that segregation stamped a badge of inferiority on military children and hindered their development no matter how equal the facilities. “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.” Linda Brown was denied admission to a school simply because she was African American. She had to walk a mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her all-black elementary school., even though there was a school just seven blocks from her home.

URL

Web site
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Case

Pennsylvania v. Nelson

Date

1956

Annotation

The court invalidated a Pennsylvania law punishing subversive activities on the grounds that this power was reserved to the federal government.

URL

Web site
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Case

Watkins v. United States

Date

1957

Annotation

The court reversed the contempt conviction of a labor union official who refused to provide the names of individuals who had been members of the Communist party, holding that the question was not relevant to the committee’s work.

URL

Web site
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Case

Yates v. United States

Date

1957

Annotation

The court ruled that the Smith Act of 1946 did not forbid individuals from advocating the violent overthrow of the government; it only prevent actions to achieve that aim.

URL

Web site
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Case

Roth v. United States

Date

1957

Annotation

The court ruled that in order to be deemed obscene, a work had to be “utterly without redeeming social value.”

URL

Web site
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Case

Kent v. Dulles

Date

1958

Annotation

Ruling that the right to travel is protected by the 5th Amendment’s due process clause, the court rules that the State Department could not refuse to issue a passport to artist Rockwell Kent for refusing to sign an anti-communist affidavit.

URL

Web site
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Case

Boyton v. Virginia

Date

1960

Annotation

The court ruled that a bus terminal may not segregate passengers who are traveling across interstate lines.

URL

Web site
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Case

Mapp v. Ohio

Date

1961

Annotation

The court ruled that evidence obtained by unreasonable search and seizures must be excluded from trial.

URL

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Case

Baker v. Carr

Date

1962

Annotation

The court ruled 6-2 that voters had a right to challenge the apportionment of state legislative districts in ways that overrepresented rural districts and diluted the voting power of urban voters

URL

Web site
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Case

Engel v. Vitale

Date

1962

Annotation

The court forbids non-denominational prayer in public schools, ruling that the Constitution prohibits government from “endorsing religion in general.” The court ruled that a prayer read in New York State schools violated the constitutional separation of church and state. “It is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers to be recited as a part of a religious program carried on by government.”

URL

Web site
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Case

School District of Abington Township v. Schempp

Date

1963

Annotation

The court prohibited daily Bible readings and the reading of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.

URL

Web site
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Case

Gideon v. Wainwright

Date

1963

Annotation

In a case involving a barely literate Florida man, Clarence Gideon, who was accused of breaking into a pool hall, the court ruled that indigent criminal defendants have a right to legal counsel at taxpayers’ expense.

URL

Web site
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Case

New York Times v. Sullivan

Date

1964

Annotation

When a white segregationist officials in the South tried to silence newspapers through huge libel suits, the Supreme Court ruled that public figures have a higher burden of proof in a libel case than private citizens, and must prove that a libelous statement is published with malicious intent and in reckless disregard for the truth. “Debate on public issues,” wrote Justice William J. Brennan, “ should be uninhibited, robust, wide-open, and …may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.”

URL

Web site
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Case

Escobedo v. Illinois

Date

1964

Annotation

The court throws out the confession of a man whose requests to have his attorney present during police interrogation were denied.

URL

Web site
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Case

Griswold v. Connecticut

Date

1965

Annotation

Holding that a right to privacy is implicit in the Constitution, the Supreme Court, by a 7-2 vote, struck down a state law that prohibited the use of birth control by married couples.

URL

Web site
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Case

Sheppard v. Maxwell

Date

1966

Annotation

The court reversed the murder conviction of Dr. Sam Sheppard on the grounds that massive publicity had deprived him of the right to a fair trial.

URL

Web site
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Case

Miranda v. Arizona

Date

1966

Annotation

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that truck driver Ernesto Miranda, who confessed to abducting and raping an 18-year-old girl, should have been informed by the police of his right to remain silent and to consult with an attorney.

URL

Web site
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Case

In Re Gault

Date

1967

Annotation

By a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that juveniles have the same rights to a fair trial as adults. 15-year-old Gerald Gault was accused of making an obscene phone call to a female neighbor and was sentenced to a reform school for up to six years. Under Arizona’s juvenile code, he had been denied notice of the charges against him, the right to counsel, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, and the privilege against self-incrimination.

URL

Web site
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Case

Loving v. Virginia

Date

1967

Annotation

The court struck down a Virginia law prohibiting interracial marriages as a violation of the 14th Amendment.

URL

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Case

Shapiro v. Thompson

Date

1969

Annotation

The court struck down state laws that required individuals to reside in a state for a year in order to receive welfare benefits, ruling that this violated the right to interstate travel.

URL

Web site
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Case

Tinker v. Des Moines

Date

1969

Annotation

The court overturned the suspension of students who had worn black arm bands to protest the Vietnam war, declaring that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

URL

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Case

Williams v. Florida

Date

1970

Annotation

The court held that states could use 6-person juries in cases that did not involve capital punishment.

URL

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Case

Griggs v. Duke Power

Date

1971

Annotation

The court ruled that unnecessary barriers to employment must be removed if they are unrelated to job skills and have a discriminatory impact. This decision upheld the use of statistics as a way of demonstrating discrimination.

URL

Web site
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Case

Lemon v. Kurtzman

Date

1971

Annotation

The court states that in determining whether a law violates the Constitutional separation of church and state, a law must have a secular purpose, it must not promote or retard religious beliefs, and it must avoid “excessive entanglements” with religion.

URL

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Case

New York Times v. United States

Date

1971

Annotation

By a 6-3 vote the court denied the government’s request for a court order barring publication of a secret Pentagon history of the Vietnam War. The court said there was insufficient evidence to support a prior restraint on the press.

URL

Web site
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Case

Furman v. Georgia

Date

1972

Annotation

The Supreme Court struck down death penalty laws that gave juries excessive discretion, allowing the death penalty to be arbitrarily and capriciously. It later struck down capital punishment laws that gave jurors no discretion or that barred jurors from considering mitigating facts about the murderer.

URL

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Case

Johnson v. Louisiana

Date

1972

Annotation

The court ruled that the constitution did not require unanimous verdicts in criminal cases.

URL

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Case

Apodaca v. Oregon

Date

1972

Annotation

The court ruled that the constitution did not require unanimous verdicts in criminal cases.

URL

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Case

Eisenstadt v. Baird

Date

1972

Annotation

The court rules that laws prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried adults violates the Constitution’s equal protection

URL

Web site
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Case

Doe v. Bolton

Date

1973

Annotation

By a vote of 7-2, the Court invalidated provisions of a Georgia law that required that abortion be performed in a hospital; a woman secure the approval of three physicians and a hospital committee before obtaining an abortion; and a woman seeking to obtain an abortion be a resident of the state.

URL

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Case

Roe v. Wade

Date

1973

Annotation

The Supreme Court invalidated a Texas law prohibiting abortion except to save a mother’s life. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that the 14th Amendment “protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy.”

URL

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Case

United States v. Nixon

Date

1974

Annotation

The court orders President Richard Nixon to turn over to a special prosecutor subpoenaed tapes relating to the Watergate break-in.

URL

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Case

Milliken v. Bradley

Date

1974

Annotation

. By a 5-4 vote, the court struck down a district court order that required the busing of African American schoolchildren in Detroit to the city’s suburbs on the grounds that there was no proof that the suburbs had engaged in intentional segregation.

URL

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Case

O'Connor v. Donaldson

Date

1975

Annotation

The court rules that mental illness could not justify a non-violent person’s indefinite, involuntary confinement.

URL

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Case

Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth

Date

1976

Annotation

By a vote of 6-3, the Court invalidated provisions of a Missouri statute that required a married woman to obtain the consent of her husband prior to obtaining an abortion; required a physician to preserve the life and health of the fetus at every stage of pregnancy; and prohibited the use of saline amniocentesis as a method of abortion. By a vote of 5-4, the Court struck down a requirement that an unmarried minor woman obtain the written consent of one parent before obtaining an abortion because the statute provided no alternative to parental consent such as judicial waiver of the consent requirement.

URL

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Case

Carey v. Population Services

Date

1977

Annotation

By a vote of 7-2, the Court invalidated a New York law prohibiting the sale or distribution of contraceptives to minors.

URL

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Case

Coker v. Georgia

Date

1977

Annotation

The Supreme Court forbade the death penalty for rape, ruling that the punishment was disproportionate to the crime.

URL

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Case

Plyler v. Doe

Date

1982

Annotation

The court ruled that states may not deny public education to the children of illegal immigrants.

URL

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Case

Hustler Magazine v. Falwell

Date

1982

Annotation

The court extended 1st Amendment protections of free speech and free press to parodies and satires.

URL

Web site
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Case

Bowers v. Hardwick

Date

1986

Annotation

The court upholds the states’ authority to regulate homosexual relations in private between consenting adults.

URL

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Case

Texas v. Johnson

Date

1989

Annotation

The court ruled invalidated a Texas law that prohibited desecration of the flag on the ground that it was an unconstitutional restriction of expressive conduct.

URL

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Case

R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, Minnesota

Date

1992

Annotation

A unanimous court strikes down a local law banning the display of any symbol “that arouses anger, alarm or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender."

URL

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Case

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Date

1992

Annotation

The court reaffirms its “central holding” in Roe v. Wade, that abortions prior to viability cannot be made criminal offenses.

URL

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Case

Lee v. Weisman

Date

1992

Annotation

The court rules that an officially-sanctioned prayer at a public school graduation violates the Constitution.

URL

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Case

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Date

1992

Annotation

By a vote of 7-2, the Court upheld provisions of a Pennsylvania statute that required (1) physicians to provide patients with anti-abortion information, including pictures of fetuses at various stages of development, to discourage women from obtaining abortions; (2) a mandatory 24-hour delay following these lectures; (3) the filing of reports, available for public inspection and copying, including the name and location of any facility performing abortions that receives any state funds; and (4) a one-parent consent requirement for minors with a judicial bypass.

URL

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Case

Stenberg v. Carhart

Date

2000

Annotation

By a vote of 5-4, the Court invalidated a Nebraska law that prohibited so-called "partial birth" abortion unless the procedure is necessary to save the life of the woman, in part because it lacked any exception to protect women's health

URL

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